So the Mueller
investigation is over.
The official "Report on the Investigation into Russian Interference in
the 2016
Presidential Election" has been written, and is in the hands of
Attorney
General William Barr, who has issued a summary
of its findings. On the core mandate of
the investigation, given
to Special Counsel Mueller by Rod Rosenstein as Acting
Attorney General in May of 2017--to investigate "any links and/or
coordination
between the Russian government and individuals associated with the
campaign of
President Donald Trump"--the takeaway conclusion stated in the Mueller
report,
as quoted in the Barr summary, is that "[T]he investigation did not
establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated
with the
Russian government in its election interference activities.1"

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In the
footnote indicated at the end of
that sentence, Barr further clarifies the comprehensive meaning of that
conclusion, again quoting the Report's own words: "In assessing
potential
conspiracy charges, the Special Counsel also considered whether members
of the
Trump campaign 'coordinated' with Russian election interference
activities. The
Special Counsel defined 'coordination' as an 'agreement--tacit or
express--between the Trump Campaign and the Russian government on
election
interference'."

Barr
restates the point of the cited
conclusion from the Mueller Report a number of times: "The Special
Counsel's
investigation did not find that the Trump campaign or anyone associated
with it
conspired or coordinated with Russia in its efforts to influence the
2016 U.S.
presidential election"the Special Counsel did not find that any U.S.
person or
Trump campaign official or associate conspired or knowingly coordinated
with
the IRA [Internet Research Agency, the indicted Russian clickbait
operation] in
its efforts."

Thus, the
Mueller investigation found no
"conspiracy," no "coordination,"--i.e., no "collusion"--"tacit or
express"
between the Trump campaign or any
U.S. person and the Russian
government. The Mueller investigation did not make, seal, or recommend
any
indictment for any U.S. person for any such crime.

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This is
as clear and forceful a
repudiation as one can get of the "collusion" narrative that has been
insistently shoved down our throats by the Democratic Party, its
McResistance,
its allied media, and its allied intelligence and national security
agencies
and officials. Whatever one wants to say about any other aspect of this
investigation--campaign finance violations, obstruction of justice,
etc.--they
were not the main saga for the past two+ years as spun by the
Russiagaters. The
core narrative was that Donald Trump was some kind of Russian agent or
asset, arguably
guilty of treason and taking orders from his handler/blackmailer
Vladimir Putin,
who conspired with him to steal the 2016 election, and, furthermore,
that Saint
Mueller and his investigation team of patriotic FBI/CIA agents were
going to find
the goods that would have the Donald taken out of the White House in
handcuffs for
that.

Keith
Olbermann's spectacular rant in
January 2017 defined the core narrative and exemplified the Trump
Derangement
Syndrome that powered it: an emotional, visceral hatred of Donald Trump
wrapped
in the fantasy--insisted upon as "elemental, existential fact"--that he
was "put
in power by Vladimir Putin." A projection and deflection, I would say,
of
liberals' self-hatred for creating the conditions--eight years of war
and wealth
transfer capped off by a despised and entitled candidate--that allowed a
vapid clown
like Trump to be elected. It couldn't be our
fault! It must have been Putin who arranged it!

Here's
a highlight of Keith's delusional
discourse. But, please watch the whole six-minute video below. They may
have
been a bit calmer, but this is the fundamental lunacy that was exuding
from the
rhetorical pores of Rachel, Chris, and Co. day after day for two+
years:

The
military apparatus of this country is about to be handed over to scum,
who are beholden to scum, Russian
scum!As things
are today January 20th will not be an inauguration but rather the end
of the
United States as an independent country. Donald John Trump...is not a
president;
he is a puppet, put in power by Vladimir Putin. Those who ignore these
elemental, existential facts--Democrats or Republicans--are traitors to
this
country. [Emphases in original. Really, watch it.]

This--Trump's
secret, treasonous collusion
with Putin, and not hush money or campaign finance violations or
"obstruction
of justice" or his obvious overall sleaziness--was Russiagate.

Russiagate
is Dead! Long Live Russiagate!

And
it still is. Here's the demonstration in New York
last Thursday, convened by the MoveOn/Maddow #Resistance, singing from
"the
hymnal" about how Trump is a "Russian whore" who is "busy blowing
Vladimir":

Former college professor, native and denizen of New York City. Blogging at www.thepolemicist.net, from a left-socialist perspective. Also publishing on Counterpunch The Greanville Post, Z, The Unz Review, and other sites around the net.